


Save My Place in Santa Fe

by thatcuriouslibra



Category: Newsies!: the Musical - Fierstein/Menken
Genre: Allegory, Bittersweet, Bittersweet Ending, Completed, I can’t describe it, Injury, I’ve sunk low, Kissing, M/M, Newsies - Freeform, Santa Fe, Symbolism, it was a dare but i’m so into it, not cannon ending, polio
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-17
Updated: 2018-04-19
Packaged: 2019-04-24 09:36:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,343
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14352795
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thatcuriouslibra/pseuds/thatcuriouslibra
Summary: Jack and Crutchie were always close. Now they have to chance to start a whole new chapter together. PLEASE read the notes and summaries.Thanks for your support! If you would like to request something or liked this fic please leave kudos or comments! So encouraging! Thanks Obsessive_musical_trashbag for helping me make this more accurate!UPDATE: After what happened in Texas’s Santa Fe I considered taking this down, I’ve made the decision not to. That would be wrong. I will keep fighting for reforms in gun laws and hope you will too. It’s not about the guns. It’s about our lives. I love you all.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> CRUTCHIE’S REAL NAME WAS JAMES APPARENTLY. You need that info to read this, also know that in the early 1900s in New York City, being homosexual was more accepted it fell out in the 1930s google it idk thats’s what I saw. Who would of thought! This is historically set with some flaws. This is very symbolic so really try to catch on to what I'm getting at. Okay this is super random but my class watched the pro-shot and I used to think it was kind of cringe inducing but now I thought of this ship and even though I know practically no ones name despite seeing it local here we go. It was sort of a dare and I should be working on my other fics but c’est la vie! Thanks Obsessive_musical_trashbag for helping me make this more accurate!

Crutchie’s eyes wandered past the sky into nothingness. He was exhausted, but only a few hours earlier he heard Jack had gotten the chance to blow off New York for Santa Fe. He’d always dreamed of going there, he couldn’t miss that chance. But damn Crutchie would miss him. Jack kept him sane, he stood up for him, did everything for him. He felt defenseless without Jack. He loved him. 

“Ay.. uh.. Jack?” Crutchie propped himself up. 

“Mm?” Jack said half asleep. 

“Oh-I… is it true what they’re saying? All them? ‘Bout you leaving us for prairie dogs and shit?”

“Watch ya’ mouth.” Jack was one of the worst and he didn’t blink an eye even when the youngest boys cursed. Crutchie didn’t quite realize it, but Jack was always trying to protect him from all the bad in the world. He felt he was doing screw up job, as the poor boy was still practically a slave, working for close to nothing on one leg. He beat himself up everyday he couldn’t protect and provide for Crutchie much less the rest of them.

“Are you leaving me..uh- us! Are you leaving us Jack?” Crutchie became more serious. Jack sighed. It was late and he ached for sleep. 

“I’m gonna do everythin’ I can to bring everybody some justice, then we gonna leave.” Jack yawned, readjusting. 

“We gonna leave? All of us?” Crutchie looked over at Jack.

“You n’ I okay? Some those boys got families… the rest of them have each other. After tomorrow they’ll have fair jobs I’m hopin’. We don’t have family, we got each other. Santa Fe. A’ight?” Crutchie smiled and nodded.

“Santa Fe. What about Katherine? She coming?” Crutchie was too sweet. He genuinely wanted Jack to be happy. 

“Katherine’s got a good life. I’m not tryin’ a mess it all up. Plus, I got girls lined up in Santa Fe.” Jack looked over at Crutchie who was laughing sweetly. One kid yelled for them to keep it down. Jack sat up and yelled a string of profanities back. “I’m just teasing ya Jamesy. You’re all I need.” Crutchie melted. No one could really confess, but they both loved each other. ‘Maybe in another life..’ thought Jack. ‘Maybe once we hit Santa Fe…’ Crutchie dreamed.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Big thanks to Obsessive_musical_trashbag for helping me make this chapter more historically accurate!

Jack ferociously climbed to the top of a building where he and Crutchie used to sleep. He just watched his friend, his best friend, his love get taken away from him. Crutchie was so sick, he was doing so poorly. Jack wouldn’t let himself realize Crutchie didn’t have much time left, the frail boy had had polio for a long time. He crashed his fist into the metal railing repetitively. “Dumb kid’s just too damn slow.” He looked up and begged that Santa Fe would wait for him. The anger crashed through his body like a great flood. “Just let me start over…” his fist bleed out and he fell to his knees. 

At the refuge sweet Crutchie was writing Jack a letter ‘Dear Jack, greetins from the refuge. Shnider soaked me real good wtih my crutch- and Jack, this is Crutchie by the way. These here guards. They is rude. They say jump, boy ya jump or your screwed.’ He tried his best to spell correctly, they had some schooling but it wasn’t great education. He often spelled the same words different ways, figures were his best subject. Unfortunately, Crutchie’s letter never made it out of his hand. Maybe it was never supposed to. But Crutchie never again had the strength to jump. 

Over the next few days Jack was a wreck. Everything was a painful daze. He fought and was fought. All for Crutchie, although no one could understand what he was doing or why. As he bruised and bleed out he walked into the street, cursing the world, cursing love. He held old newspapers over his wounds and watched the papers fill with blood, but the mud on them stung. He sat down. It felt so good to sit. Then he saw something bright. Train lights searing through the New York fog and musk. His entire body pulsed as he felt himself rise to his feet. “Santa Fe. I ain’t givin’ up.”


	3. Chapter 3

Jack had never seen Crutchie at a time when he couldn’t count his ribs.

He had never seen Crutchie at a time when he could walk without help. 

He had never seen Crutchie without dirt on his face. 

He had never seen Crutchie so beautiful in his life until this moment. Crutchie started walking towards him. Then running. Jack caught him as he jumped into his arms and kissed his clean face, rosy with glee. “I thought I’d neva see ya again!” Crutchie cried.

“I promised you Santa Fe. No way I was gonna leave without ya angel.” Crutchie smiled the brightest smile as they boarded the train. They went to the very back and shared a seat as Jack set Crutchie down straddling his lap. “YO’ LEG!” Jack almost screamed as it hit him. 

“I know! Wait till ya’ see this!” Crutchie jumped and touched the train’s velvet and brass ceiling, which was only a few inches above his head. “I can jump so high now!” Jack beamed with pride and scooped him up showering him with kisses.

“Guess we don’t gotta call you Crutchie no more.” Jack teased as Crutchie laughed. Jack touched Crutchie’s nose. 

“I kinda like it now.” Crutchie leaned on Jack’s chest.

“I caught on sweetheart. I guess I don’t gotta treat ya like you’re made of glass anymo’.” Crutchie smiled sweetly.

“I kinda like that too.” He shied away meekly.

“Ya think I don’t know?” Crutchie laughed unsure where to put his newly free hands. 

“It’s weird havin’ two free hands. I don’ know what to do with em’.” Jack placed Crutchie’s hands on his waist as he kissed him. 

“One idea.” It was so precious the way Crutchie looked at Jack. Not only did he love him, he looked up to him. Jack was everyone’s leader. Mostly Crutchie’s. He used to want to be just like him. Now he wanted Jack to never seize the sweet way he kissed him, as if he were the most fragile boy ever. He was so in love. 

They made up for lost time, kissing, talking, loving. It seemed as soon as they remembered where they were supposed to go they were there. Santa Fe. “Let’s make a beautiful life fo’ us.” Jack kissed Crutchie’s forehead. 

“Yous gonna have to catch me first!” Crutchie ran off and Jack chased him. They laughed. Jack had never seen anything so beautiful, all around him was just what he dreamed. But the most beautiful thing of all was Crutchie and his blonde hair and his sweet innocent smile. 

Jack was content. He realized even in the bad times, he always had a little bit of Santa Fe sunshine sleeping a few feet away from him. Jack only had a few years of school, but he was smart. Smart enough to know that there was no going back, no second shot. Smart enough to stop thinking and start chasing Crutchie. Smart enough to soak in all the joy, love and pureness that filled his mind and soul. 

Many would argue before Crutchie was useless in school and business, but they’d have a hard time saying anything else after Jack was done with them. Crutchie had the most rare gift, he was kinder than anyone Jack had ever even heard of. The boy never had the opportunity to learn. Sure he couldn’t write well, or do advanced math but none of that would ever matter again. He was smart enough to let Jack catch him and transcend and choose this. 

Jack and Crutchie swam and ran and kissed and laughed and jumped until they felt clouds. They loved so passionately and deeply and it only grew. Never a second thought, never a doubt. Never a time they weren’t filled with content. 

“Thank you angel.” 

“F’ what Jack?” 

“Santa Fe.”


End file.
